Gail MacColl - The Book of Cards for Kids

by Gail MacColl
Illustrations by Simms Taback

WORKMAN PUBLISHING, NEW YORK

Copyright 1992 by Gail MacColl and Paul Hanson

Cover and book illustrations copyright 1992 by Simms Taback

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

eISBN 9780761173403

Concept and design by Paul Hanson

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www.workman.com

Playing cards and card games have been around for a long time. No one knows exactly where playing cards came from; some people think it might have been the Middle East or Egypt. But the standard set, or deck, of cardslike your Cards for Kids deckhas existed for at least 500 years!

At first, playing cards were expensive to make. They were hand painted with gold and silver, and only very wealthy people could afford them. Naturally, the picture cards showed kings, queens, and knights dressed in the latest stylesof the year 1490, that is.

As more games were invented, the card decks changed. Cards were divided into groups called suits, and each suit had its own symbol. These symbols varied from one country to another, but eventually, when cards began to be printed instead of painted, four simple shapes were adopted:

SPADESa shovel symbol from German cards;

CLUBSfrom Spanish or German cards, which used sticks, oak leaves, or acorns as symbols;

HEARTSa shape used on German cards;

DIAMONDSinvented by French card makers because it was an easy shape to print.

The printers made one more change in the deck. They decided to print hearts and diamonds in red, and clubs and spades in black.

About 150 years ago, one last big change was made in the look of playing cards. An English card maker put the number and suit symbol along the edge of each card. These new cards were called squeezers because players could hold their cards squeezed together and still be able to tell what cards were in their hands.

Today, a standard deck of cards looks like the picture on the next page. The letter or number side of each card is called the face. The other side of all the cards has the same picture or pattern and is called the back.

Most decks include two Jokers, extra cards that are used in certain games and that come in handy as replacements for lost cards. A deck like this is familiar to people all over the world, so you can play card games wherever you travel. At different times and in different parts of the world, one game or another has become very popular. Whist, for instance, was the favorite English card game of the 19th century.

When many people play the same game, they often invent new forms of it. You may read that a game belongs to a certain family; that means it plays the same way, or is a version of that game. Out of the Whist family came Bridge, one of the most popular card games of the 20th century.

CARD SYMBOLS:

Card game instructions often use card symbols, to stand for specific cards. For instance, the Queen of Hearts would be written like this: Q. These symbols are printed on the cards edge.

When you play cards, you may use the cards in different ways. One game may have you match or collect cards with the same numbers or pictures, suits, or colors. Or you may gather cards that run in number order, which is called a sequence. In some games, you try to get rid of all your cards; in others, you try to collect as many cards as you can. Certain games ask you to remember what cards have already been played; other games ask you only to guess what card may be in another players hand.

Most card players prefer to sit around a table so that everyone can see the cards being played. Or you can sit on the floor in a circle; as long as the cards in the center can be seen and the cards in the other players hands cannot be seen!

Almost all card games have the same rules for starting a game, for handling the cards, and for card manners:

Most games are started by mixing the cards together so well that their order is unpredictable. Some card players have learned fancy shuffling, but any kind of card mixing will work, as long as all cards have the pattern (or back) side facing up when youre finished. Always shuffle at least five times before beginning a new game.

At the beginning of most games, one person hands out, or deals, the cards to each player. The dealer can be chosen by picking the highest cards, or simply by asking the oldest or youngest player to deal. The best way to deal cards is to hold the deck, face down, in one hand and to slide off the top card with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand, placing the card face down on the table in front of the other player. Always deal out cards one at a time and face down, starting with the player on your left.

Players used to cut cards to make sure the dealer wasnt cheating. Today they do it because its just good card manners. To cut the deck, the player to the left of the dealer lifts about half the cards off the top of a face-down deck and puts them beside the bottom half. Then the dealer picks up the bottom half, puts it on the top half, picks up the entire deck, and deals. You can also cut cards as a way to choose a dealer. Each player lifts up a portion of the deck and shows the bottom card. The player who revealed the highest card is the dealer.